By
On Top Magazine Staff
Published:
July 21, 2014

The Weinstein Company on Monday
released a trailer for its upcoming film based on the life of Alan
Turing.

The 38-year-old Benedict Cumberbatch
(Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County)
plays Turing in the film. (The trailer is embedded on this page.
Visit
our video library for more videos.)

Turing, described as a brilliant
mathematician, helped crack the German Enigma machine code – a
triumph of computer science and a turning point for the Allies in
World War II.

He died an early death for
acknowledging that he was gay. In 1952, Turing and Arnold Murray
were charged with gross indecency after Turing disclosed their
relationship to detectives investigating a break in at Turing's
Manchester home. Turing was
convicted and given the choice of going to prison or submitting to a
form of chemical castration via estrogen hormone injections. He
chose the latter. The therapy left him impotent and he developed
breasts.

It is widely
believed that he committed suicide two years after his arrest by
eating a cyanide-laced apple.

Last year, Turing
was given a posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Imitation
Game, which opens stateside on November 21, also stars Keira
Knightly as Joan Clarke, a fellow code-breaker engaged to Turing for
a short time before he confessed he was gay.